Three Vietnamese journalists given antistate charges

New York, April 16, 2012--Vietnamese authorities have brought
anti-government charges against three journalists who have languished in prison
for several months, news reports said on Sunday.

The journalists, Nguyen Van Hai, Phan Thanh Hai, and Ta
Phong Tan, were charged with anti-government propaganda concerning a total of 421
articles they had posted on their blogs that "denigrated the state," Agence
France-Presse reported on Sunday, citing state media. The charge carries a
maximum jail term of 20 years, news reports said. The three journalists were
also members of the Free Journalists Network of Vietnam, a press freedom group
that Nguyen Van Hai helped found and which now operates from exile, CPJ research
shows.

Nguyen Van Hai, also known as Nguyen Hoang Hai, wrote a
political blog Dieu Cay (Peasant's
Pipe) and had reported on national protests against China as well as
demonstrations against the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay, according to CPJ
research. He was arrested in 2008 and served a 30-month sentence on politicized tax avoidance charges, but was
kept in jail pending further investigation after the sentenceconcluded in 2010, according to CPJ
research. In 2011, CPJ appealed
for his urgent release after news reports said he had been seriously injured in
prison.

Phan
Thanh Hai, who wrote under the penname Anh Ba Saigon (Saigon Brother Three),
was arrested in October 2010 under a provisional four-month arrest order, and
held without charge ever since, according to CPJ research. He had reported on
political issues on his blog including Vietnam's relations with China,
according to CPJ research. State media also accused Phan Thanh Hai and Nguyen
Van Hai of attending a training course to overthrow the government, The
Associated Press reported.

Ta Phong Tan, a former police officer who documented social
injustice on her blog Conglysuthat(Justice and
Truth), was arrested in September 2011, according to the France-based exile
support group Vietnam Committee on
Human Rights. It is unclear if formal charges were previously brought against
her.

"Nguyen Van Hai, Phan Thanh Hai, and Ta Phong Tan have
already been held for lengthy periods in open-ended detentions, and now they
face vague charges based on articles the state deems unfavorable," said Bob
Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "Authorities should drop these charges
and release them immediately."

State media is tightly controlled in Vietnam, and the government has
increasingly targeted online journalists who cover sensitive issues, according
to CPJ
research.

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